Dimensions
of God
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Dimensions
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Get Off His Back
By Ben Stein
Published 9/2/2005 11:59:59 PM
A
few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and
care to know the truth:
1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and
Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and
loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is
acutely horrifying.
2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane.
Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create
them or unleash this one.
3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than
others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George
Bush was born.
4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global
warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut
evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence
that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them
aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is
a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before
George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all
by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the
world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word,
George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate
otherwise is belief in sorcery.
6.) George Bush had nothing to do with the
hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by
New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly
good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's
fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the
plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too
confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were
certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick
people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job
description does not include making sure every adult in America has a
car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.
7.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at
rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang
bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal
hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.
8.) George Bush is the least racist President in
mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his
appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.
9.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can
to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is
not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and
now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering
the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.
10.) There is not the slightest evidence at all
that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to
the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.
11.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming
Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New
Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the
city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all
be a lot better off.
12.) New Orleans is a great city with many great
people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into
an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest
will not speed the process by one day.
13.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the
breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level
Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge
of your health care.
God bless all of those dear people who are
suffering so much, and God bless those helping them, starting with
George Bush.
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer
living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He also writes "Ben Stein's
Diary" in every issue of The American Spectator.
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